Blogs / Dr.Bob's blog / Slip sliding away...
Slip sliding away...
Jeff Hopkins, photon-counting, reports that epsilon Aurigae has faded to match eta Aur at V = 3.17 on the morning of 15 Sept 2009. If you have been hesitating to get out and see the eclipse, NOW IS THE TIME to get in gear and watch it happen. If you have any sort of digital camera capable of recording the scene, start recording and archiving your data. Over the coming weeks, we anticipate posting more instructional material on the Data Analysis formum about how to process your images and deduce magnitudes - from visual comparisons as found in the 10 Star Tutorial, to aperture photometry tools available online (such as IRIS - http://astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/astro/astro.htm - or with licensed software like CCDsoft, MaximDL, MIRA, etc...). Happy observing!
This morning, just before dawn, I observed epsilon Aurigae again. What a beautiful time of day (night). Mighty Orion is near overhead and appears to be gaining on the seven sisters. Faithful Sirius is at his heals. As I finished observing, the crescent Moon with brilliant Earth shine rose to the East with brilliant Venus just to the left. What a glorious morning. A great time to observe and most people miss it. The V band is still slowly fading. Today was 3.18 while yesterday was 3.17. These measurements were made at low air mass close to the meridian and resulted in very low error. This brings up the point that one should always try to make observations, whether photometric or visual, when the star system is close to the meridian. The best you can do right now is just before dawn. Later in mid-December the star system will be approaching the meridian around mid-night so you will need to decide whether to stay up or get up to observe. Around mid-November it will approach the meridian about 2:00 AM and mid-October around 4:00 AM. Right now it approaches the meridian after sunrise so just before dawn is the best you can do. The choice is easy. Just get up an hour earlier than sunrise. Jeff Hopkins Phoenix Observatory Counting Photons phxjeff@hposoft.com
I agree that Eps Aur is dimming. The past 2 mornings I notice it definitely dimmer visually than the 3.2 magnitude star. Everyone should keep an eye on it and report your observations. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring, Florida USA
Epsilon Aurigae observed to be almost identical in apparent Mag to Zeta:Brighter by 0.2 Mag: Within 10% error Iobserved Epsilon Aurigae at 23:30UTC through my trusty binoculars Celestron Skymaster 15x70s and withoutknowing how to reckon air mass butconditions were very clear here near the Irish south coast, with north Atlantic air. This is my first time joining a group like Citizen Sky and I'm very excited about the project, to the degree that I'm going to promote it through my educational and recreational groups of hands-on visualastronomy fanaticslike astronomy.ie and bco.ie. Glad to include more of The Charioteer, one of the easiest constellations to regognise. Keep it goin AAVSO! tripllel
Hi Denis, Great to have an observer over in Ireland. Please join the 20/20 Vision Team. Did you submit your observation through Citizen Sky? I have observed Eps Aur drop a bit mor ein the past 2 days. Keep up the good work. Chris Stephan Robert Clyde Observatory Sebring, Florida USA
Hi ChrisThanks for invite, I just joined your team. I am not new to the concept of transatlantic baseline observing if you will, but I would appreciate some pointers in the area of your work. Please e-mail me tripllel@gmail.com if you would like to see more details of my experience/training/plans for Irish astronomy (yes we do get to see through clouds betimes). Talk laterDen